I remember the first time I came into contact. It was in Greece during one of my many trips from London. I was sitting in the kitchen and my mother had just brewed a new pot of coffee, drip filter with evaporated milk (makes it taste soo amazing and the colour is brilliant as well).

So anyway she pulls out this contoured mug with a handle and saucer. The feel on the outside was earthen and inviting. On the inside with this gleaming white polished inside. Once you put this mug to your lips it just felt correct. It felt right.

The rim was thin at the top but it got bigger gradually as it went down. That had the effect of giving you the impression that the rim was thin and delicate (which appears to be in vogue at the moment), but the actual mug gave it the impression that it was heavy and sturdy from the bottom.

That was the start of my love for S&P products.

###The Company Again, as with a lot of the topics that I will be discussing on the ‘Kode, information about these items is very sparse on the internet. I found the parent company Bambi first, which then led me to the main website. The best introduction to the company is off the official website itself:

Salt&Pepper is a key brand of Australian company, Bambis. It’s Head Office is in Melbourne, Australia. Bambis (www.bambis.com.au) was founded in 1970 by Bambis Pouroundis. At the time it was a two-person operation, mainly specialized in supplying gift shops. Bambis was a pioneer in establishing Australian trade relationships with Europe and Asia.

In the late 1980’s, the company embarked on a brand-building strategy with a wide range of contemporary products appealing to the middle to upper end of the market. It was then that the Salt&Pepper brand was born. Salt&Pepper is an acronym of the names of the driving force and founders of the brand, brother and sister team, Sissi Stasios and Harry Pourounidis. Sissi is the Creative Director and Harry is the Managing Director.

The global journey commenced in 2005 when the Bambis team joined forces with Paul Aerts (Aerts NV) from Belgium and Michael Vitsaxakis (EVE SA) from Greece to bring Salt&Pepper to Europe. Both Aerts and EVE are considered market leaders in their respective countries, hence an ideal combination of skills and experience was formed to ensure a successful launch of the brand.

From its launch in 1995, their passion has seen the brand grow to be one of Australia’s most successful exports, with its contemporary designs distributed to over 54 countries around the world. It offers fashion for the home at an affordable price.

Which all makes sense as to why I saw these excellent examples of kitchenware in Greece, while they had not yet reached the shores of England. Since then the brand has expanded considerably, as I was able to buy the same mugs in Beirut, from the same collection that my mum got in Greece.

However I’ve discussed this with my mother and she loves their stuff just as much as I do, and we’re convinced that someone very high up (I’m thinking either the brother or the sister) in the company must be a designer of some sort that would allow them to keep that level of elegance in their product line. The thing you can guarantee is that the products all look elegant, but restrained. Not looking design for the sake of it (as with much kitchenware, to distinguish itself from the rest).

While I could be wrong, but reading the titles of the ‘S’ part of the S&P, it appears that Sissi is the ‘Creative Director’, while Harry is the managing director. So Sissi clearly is the creative force in this endeavour and we have her to thank for the overall product line?

Product line

The truth is I would love to be able to go into an S&P store and just browse the shelves with their products. There is this amazing consistency of quality design. The way S&P distinguish themselves is through keeping the same level of cognisant design in all of the product lines - something which is actually extremely difficult to achieve in any line of business.

The most recent example of this was when my mother bought a mug over from Greece on a recent trip to Lebanon. The mug was white with a black bottom and a thin gold line separating the two. The form of the mug and the starkness of the black instantly signalled to me what I was looking at. Without hesitation I said ‘Salt & Pepper’.

###Website It comes as little surprise that the official website is also a thing of great beauty that really does showcase the huge number of lines. I honestly had no idea until I found the website, which obviously is not that easy to find, seeing the nature of the name involved.

The stark black and white core colours work obviously with the logo, but as you move through the various ranges you also get the titles of the product range in different colours, to add that bit of life in the design, while the product images themselves take those colours further.

###Follow Up I wish I could discuss it with the owners in more detail, or someone in their creative department. I’ll be updating this post as and when I get more information.